Could be that there’s some funky smoke floating around Bataleon’s office, either way they are clearly amped and so are we for the limited release of their ‘new shap dat was meant to go pan di market next season’ (their words, not ours).

The shape is based on next years Evil Twin which is a totally new version of the already kick ass TWIN TBT shape. This new shape features a new lower nose shape, multiple radius, extra TBT kick after the effective edge, new sizes and the width is sitting in between the goliath/jam and classic ET/Riot shapes.

The rider feedback on this board is amazing Tyler, DBK and Tore all have this as their favorite twin deck now…

Click on the link to check out the board specks and their dope little limerick they came up with…heavy…!

At the same time Eddie has also been snapped up by Weekend’s associated clothing company Bond Outerwear, making him the latest member of a talent-packed team that features Heikki Sorsa and TJ Schneider.

Eddie rides off a monster booter next to Ken Block's rally car in DC's movie MTN Lab 1.5 - Photo: DC

Eddie, who had a rather fine pro-model from Forum this year, is best known for his urban-shredding skills. But, as his parts in the Forum film That, the DC film Mountain Lab 1.5 and this year’s Forum Forever showed, there’s a lot more to this man than gnarly street rails and nasty concrete bails. Eddie’s no slouch over big-ass backcountry booters either, as his part from That, which you can watch below, shows.

Whether Eddie jumped or whether he was pushed, he seems to have taken a pretty casual attitude to changing sponsors. At least according to the boys at Weekend, who gave us this account of how it went down:

“It was a rainy day around Weekend HQ last week. Our good friend Eddie Wall stopped on in to ‘chew the fat’ as they say, so we decided to lay it all on the line and see if we could make things interesting. The bet was set, if Eddie could not finish 3 crackers in 30 seconds, he would ride for Weekend.”

It appears Eddie lost, despite his best efforts to cram his mouth full of crackers. That said, there’s no way Eddie can be bummed about riding for Weekend and Bond, as both of them have really sick ranges out this year – so if you see a particularly fly-looking rider ripping up rails this year, there’s a good chance it’ll be Eddie showing off his new kit.

Stenti, a veteran of the UK scene, has been based out in Chamonix for the last few years, where he has been perfecting his line-riding skills. His extensive experience stood him in great stead for the competition, which saw him beat the likes of big names like Xavier de le Rue and Aurelien Routens.

James Stentiford screeches to a halt at the end of his epic run - Photo: D Carlier/Freeride World Tour

The comp took place in the Pentes de l’Hôtel face in the Brevent area of Chamonix, and riders faced not only one of the gnarliest descents in the legendary valley, but also the prospect of some pretty sketchy conditions.

James said: “I was really nervous up top after the fall of Raphy [Gillioz, who landed a cliff jump on a rock and broke his elbow] so I changed my line a bit. The landings where pretty harsh but it worked out really well for me. I am really happy to be on this podium as I live here and it is the third contest I have ever done!”

Watch out for James on the forthcoming stops of the Freeride World Tour, and check out the trip he took to New Zealand last summer, which will you will soon be able to read about in the March issue of Whitelines.

Nelson Pratt, new Eleven team rider - Photo: Eleven

Nelson Pratt is a name that will be familiar to many long-term readers of Whitelines – this unassuming but uber-talented UK pro has been on the scene for a number of years now and has featured in several articles, including the incredible WL trip to Kashmir a year or so back. Although Nelson has always kept things fairly low-key, his riding has spoken loudly enough for him to have picked up a brand new outerwear sponsor in Eleven.

The Swiss-based company is understandably stoked to have Nelson on the UK team, saying: “After a few months off over the summer Nelly has come back as strong and super motivated – he will worth watching out for at this years’ Brits.” At the same time, Eleven have taken the opportunity to sign two more talented young UK rippers in Joshua ‘JP’ Ainger and Samantha Rogers, both of whom have been killing it recently.

Joshua, who is just 15, is still UK based, but has been making a name for himself on his local slopes at Halifax and Castleford. Samantha is currently doing her first season in Morzine.

Kilner cranks out a method on his way to first place - Photo: Oliver Kraus/FIS

Ben narrowly lost out to the young Frenchman Arthur Longo, who like Ben, was enjoying his first ever FIS World Cup podium place. Second went to the local hero and veteran competitor Justin Lamoureux. Interestingly, although Ben and Justin have booked their spots at the Vancouver Games already, Longo’s place is far from assured. Arthur said: “Maybe I made it with this result”.

In the women’s competition, the Chinese ladies once again dominated, with Zhifeng Sun and Xuetong Cai beating Australia’s Holly Crawford into third place. But the result that really matters to us in the UK was of course Kilner’s. Not only does it mark the highpoint of what’s been a great season so far, but it will hopefully give the young Scot a big boost going into the games.

All-in-all, this has been a great weekend for British snowboarding, what with Jenny winning her second X-Games Gold and Ben’s high-scoring finish in Calgary.

L-R: Justin, Arthur and Ben enjoying the obligatory Calgary cowboy hats - Photo: Oliver Kraus/FIS

Miss Jones, who we interviewed recently for our January issue, threw down an incredible run (which you can watch below) in front of the judges in Aspen, Colorado, to take the title ahead of Jenna Meyen and Jamie Anderson.

Jenny Jones sitting pretty in first place! - Photo: Tim Lloyd

Anderson had qualified for the final in first place, and threw down what looked like a strong opening run with a frontside 360 nose-tap over the hitching post jib, into a backside 180, cab 540 and frontside 360 over the kicker line.

However veteran competitor Janna Meyen raised the bar further with her second run, whipping out an incredible backside five, cab seven and cab nine combo over the kickers. The cab nine over the final ‘money booter’ alone would surely have put Meyen in first place had she not sketched the landing and been penalised by the judges.

Jenny's super-clean cab 540 blew away the competition - Photo: Tim Lloyd

On top of that, neither Meyen nor Anderson had reckoned with our very own Jenny Jones, who came out of the starting gate with all guns blazing on here final run. Jenny threw down a sequence of impressively tech tricks, stomping her front five and cab five super-cleanly, before charging over the money booter with a nicely grabbed frontside seven indy.

Although she dragged her hand ever so slightly on the landing, her overall score of 92.66 put her beyond the reach of her two nearest rivals, and ensured Jenny her second consecutive X-Games gold. Get in!

Greg Bretz training in the pipe - Photo: Red Bull

Greg Bretz and Elena Hight have been named as the final two members of the US Olympic halfpipe squad. After two seriously fiercely fought qualifying contests over the weekend, the newcomer Bretz was left equal on qualifying points with two other riders – the much-fancied Frends crew member Luke Mitrani and the veteran JJ Thomas, leaving US Olympic organisers facing a tough choice.

In the end however, they plumped for Mammoth Mountain local Bretz, whose smooth double corks and podium place over the weekend probably helped. On the women’s side, the choice of Elena Hight as the final rider in the four person halfpipe squad was a little bit more inevitable, as she had the fourth highest points score at the end of the qualifying series.

Elena Hight - Photo: US Snowboarding

Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) the women’s Olympic halfpipe squad of Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and Elena Hight will now be exactly the same as the one that dominated at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. Hight was just sixteen at the time of the last Olympics, but still finished sixth overall.

The complete men’s US Olympic halfpipe line-up Shaun White, Louie Vito, Scotty Lago, and Greg Bretz. For those of you who don’t know the outsider Bretz, it may be worth having a look at his recent video profile on GrindTV here – or watching this video below of him riding in one of the final two Park City qualifiers over the weekend. This video makes you realise why they picked him…

The Chinese competitors standing on the podium - Photo: FIS

The result boosts the three ladies’ chances of qualifying for the Chinese Olympic squad, and acts as a statement of intent ahead of the Vancouver Olympics next month. Chinese riders, although relatively unknown outside of their home country, are widely expected to make a big impact at the games, especially in the women’s halfpipe contest.

In the men’s event in Stoneham, competition was as fierce as it has been in all of this year’s FIS comps, with riders vying for vital Olympic qualification points. Finland’s Janne Korpi narrowly beat Canadian Jeff Batchelor and fellow Finn Antti Autti to take the top podium spot.

The men's podium - Photo: FIS

While many of the world’s best halfpipe riders weren’t at the contest – including the Americans who were battling it out in their own domestic qualifiers – the standard of riding was still high. Second-placed Batchelor ensured his spot at the Vancouver games, which included back to back 9s and a backside 10, and Janne Korpi upped his chances of making the cut for Finland. Meanwhile Zeng Xiaoye, China’s top male rider, finished 5th in the competition, showing his potential with a strong run.